Dialysis Patient Citizens News
Dialysis Act would give patients more stability, options
I was first diagnosed with kidney failure in 2005 and immediately started emergency dialysis. It was a shock, but I wasn’t about to let it stop me. I began peritoneal dialysis (PD) at home so I could keep working as a teacher and a detention center tutor. Even while managing treatment, I continued to show up for my students every day. After a successful kidney transplant in 2015, I got almost ten years of freedom from dialysis. But when my transplanted kidney began to fail again in [...]
Lifesaving
A recent Supreme Court decision allows private insurers to push new dialysis patients — those who take a frequent treatment for kidney failure to survive — off their plans they’ve worked hard to keep. It’s a direct assault on the lives of dialysis patients across America. Forcing patients off their private insurance immediately after diagnosis — often within months — is unjust. I’ve lived on dialysis for over four years, endured the pain of needles tearing through my skin twice daily, and fought to keep my dignity [...]
DPC Patient Ambassador Spotlight – Pesh Patel
Check out our Patient Ambassador Spotlight, where we highlight members who elevate the voices of people with kidney disease. This month’s Spotlight is on Pesh Patel from Lafayette, New Orleans. In 2017, while working in Melbourne, Australia, Pesh became unable to walk three city blocks without stopping to catch his breath. He was rushed to the hospital, where he found out that one of his kidneys had never fully developed, and the other was only 2% functional. Pesh then spent 15 months on hemodialysis before receiving a [...]
DPC Responds to Medicare Dialysis Payment Rule
DPC submitted comments on Medicare’s proposed payment update for 2027. DPC urged CMS to change its current policies, which continue to cause financial stress to dialysis care, staffing shortages, and lack of patient access to new and innovative therapies. For 2027, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is proposing to increase the ESRD PPS base rate to $299.55, which will increase total payments to ESRD facilities by approximately 1.1%. However, DPC notes, the current inflation rate is 3.4%, the Wall Street Journal’s expert panel of economists [...]
DPC’s Letter to Dr. Mehmet Oz, Administrator at Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, on CMS-1846-P: CY 2027 Changes to the End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) Prospective Payment System, Acute Kidney Injury Dialysis (AKI) Payment, and ESRD Quality Incentive Program
August 24, 2026 The Honorable Mehmet Oz, Administrator Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services 200 Independence Avenue, SW Washington, DC 20001 Re: CMS-1846-P: CY 2027 Changes to the End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) Prospective Payment System, Acute Kidney Injury Dialysis (AKI) Payment, and ESRD Quality Incentive Program Dear Dr. Oz Dialysis Patient Citizens (DPC) offers comments on the above referenced Rule. DPC's membership, currently about 35,000, is restricted to kidney disease patients and their family members. DPC is a patient-led organization. Our by-laws require that the President, Vice [...]
Dialysis Patient Citizens and the DPC Education Center Mourn the Passing of Arthur Hill
It is with a heavy heart that DPC and the DPC Education Center Board, staff, and volunteers learned of the passing of one of our Board members, Arthur Hill. Arthur worked as a distressed assets consultant for nearly 30 years before being diagnosed with kidney failure. From that point on, he applied his sharp analytical skills to exploring how advances in technology could be leveraged to help kidney patients and dedicated his time to patient advocacy. Arthur was instrumental in passing Indiana Senate Bill 215 (Public Law [...]
NCSL 2026 Recap
The National Conference of State Legislators (NCSL) welcomed more than 7,000 attendees to its Legislative Summit in Chicago July 27-29. DPC was thrilled to participate in this bipartisan event as part of our legislative advocacy work at the state level. Megan Hashbarger, Senior Vice President of Government Relations, and State Advocacy Directors, Elizabeth Lively and Pamela Zielske, attended the event and shared updates on DPC’s critically important work in the states to increase access to affordable Medigap coverage. Over the course of the Summit, we heard numerous stories [...]
Advocacy Day 2026
During June 29th – 30th, DPC hosted our annual Advocacy Day in Washington, D.C. bringing together patients, family members, and care partners to meet with their Members of Congress to help elevate the dialysis patient voice. This year, 62 advocates attended our fly-in from 29 states, meeting with more than 90 Members of Congress and/or their staff. Advocates spoke with their Senators and Representative urging support for the Restore Act (H.R. 2199/S. 1173), which would allow patients to keep their private insurance coverage for the full 30-month transition [...]
A better life
I was 16 when I started dialysis. I spent 17.5 years in treatment before receiving a transplant nearly 10 years ago. But a transplant isn’t a cure — it’s another type of treatment for my kidney failure, one that still requires lifelong medications, labs and procedures. Even with coverage, I’ve seen how hard it can be for patients to access treatments they need. Too many people I’ve met on this journey, including those in my local kidney support group, struggle to get therapies that could improve their [...]
Congress must support innovation for dialysis patients
Editor: I spent seven years on dialysis — the only treatment outside of a transplant for kidney failure — before receiving a kidney transplant in 2023. Every day I spent hooked up to that machine was a reminder of how fragile life becomes when your kidneys fail. Before my diagnosis, I was healthy; I was an athlete and musician. But after my diagnosis, I lost my job and my employer insurance with it. Bills piled up fast. It wasn’t until a social worker helped me apply for [...]
DPC Patient Ambassador Spotlight – Adrian Ropp
Check out our Patient Ambassador Spotlight, where we highlight members who elevate the voices of people with kidney disease. This month’s Spotlight is on Adrian Ropp from Draper, Utah. Originally from Blackfoot, Idaho, Adrian was diagnosed with kidney failure in 2022 and his life changed drastically. So, it was no small feat that on the third anniversary of receiving his kidney transplant, Adrian was on Capitol Hill, advocating with his fellow patient ambassadors for Dialysis Patient Citizens’ 2026 Annual Advocacy Day. When Adrian went on dialysis in [...]
Support Kidney Care Access Protection Act
To the editor: Kidney failure changed everything for me. I was already grieving the loss of my husband, daughter, and grandson when I learned my high blood pressure and diabetes had gone unchecked for years, leading to total kidney failure. Within weeks, I had to start dialysis. The first day, I sat in my car and cried. I wasn’t just scared for my health, I was terrified of the financial toll. I now rely on Medicare and Medicaid, but even then, I have to pay out of [...]
Congress must strengthen Medicare for dialysis patients
Editor: I was on dialysis — a treatment that kept me alive while my kidneys failed — for five years before receiving a kidney transplant. I was fortunate to keep private insurance for the first 30 months and then transition to Medicare along with New York’s supplemental coverage. Medicare’s approach to dialysis care falls short. There was little change in the treatments I received over the years. I, and many others like me, lacked access to innovative treatments that help control phosphorus, prevent itchy skin, manage anemia, [...]
Patient Advocates Head to D.C.
DPC is excited to welcome this year’s group of patient advocates to Washington, D.C. June 29th – 30th for our Annual Advocacy Day Event. Our advocates will be meeting with their representatives on the Hill to discuss two very important pieces of legislation for kidney patients: S. 2730 / H.R. 6214 – The Kidney Care Access Protection Act and H.R. 2199 / S. 1173 – The Restore Protections for Dialysis Patients Act. If you have not yet done so, please take a moment to urge your representatives to [...]
Letters: Bill in Congress would help dialysis patients
In 2017, while working in Melbourne, Australia, I became unable to walk three city blocks without stopping to catch my breath. Within hours of reaching the ER, I’d had two blood transfusions and was in the ICU. I found out one kidney had never fully developed, and the other was only 2% functional. I spent 15 months on hemodialysis before receiving a transplant in 2018. Two and a half years later, my body rejected it. In August 2024, I was back on dialysis. One in 3 Americans [...]
New dialysis patients deserve continued coverage
I was first diagnosed with kidney disease in 2001, shortly after the birth of my second daughter. What doctors thought was pregnancy-related high blood pressure turned out to be the start of kidney failure. For years, I tried to push forward, working full time and raising my girls, until my health declined sharply in 2010, and I went into a hypertensive crisis. I started peritoneal dialysis in 2011, which allowed me to keep working for a time. But, when I eventually had to switch to hemodialysis, the [...]
Protecting dialysis patients
My sister and I have polycystic kidney disease and shared the same dialysis schedule for years. I’ve been on dialysis nearly 15 years, surviving heart surgery and breast cancer before receiving a kidney transplant last October. My sister was not so lucky. After losing private insurance through divorce, she refused disability, believing she couldn’t survive on those benefits. Our family paid out of pocket to keep her on dialysis. By the time she got coverage, she had already started to give up. Her transplant failed. She passed [...]
Dialysis patients deserve protection
During my final year of college, I nearly died. What began as abdominal pain, misdiagnosed and mistreated, spiraled into sepsis that was shutting down my organs one by one. By the time I reached the hospital, I needed four units of blood and four hours of emergency dialysis before I could even have surgery. I was a college student on my parents' private insurance with no clue what the next steps were. That diagnosis changed everything. But instead of letting it define me, it drove me. I [...]
LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Congress must restore protections for dialysis patients
My husband Greg was diagnosed with end-stage renal disease in 2006. He spent nearly seven years on dialysis before receiving a kidney transplant in 2013. For over a decade, that transplant gave him his life back. Then, in late 2023, complications from COVID caused his transplant to fail, and in October 2024, he returned to dialysis. The second time has been far harder — not because anything is different, but because we already know this fight is physically, emotionally and financially draining. When Greg was first diagnosed, [...]